[ale] Re-send: Opinions on Cable versus DSL

[Glenn C. Lasher Jr.]

I had a really, really, really bad experience with trying to get DSL
service *even turned on* at my home.  Verizon advised me that I was
eligible, and Telocity advised that they were offering in this area, so I
ordered Telocity, because Verizon refused to even touch Linux, as I refuse
to even touch Windows (unless someone pays me).

Effectively, Verizon buggered up at every step.  They introduced an
automatic 4-week delay (in addition to the two week delivery time that
Telocity offered to the customers of other IBOC's.  This was just for
being Verizon.  This delay extended to several months.  Next, Verizon told
Telocity it was live, and telocity sent the modem.  It didn't sync.
Finally, after two more weeks of bitching, Verizon got it hooked to
something and it synced, but wouldn't talk.  It stayed this way for a
couple more months.

When I finally got sick of flying into a nightly rage at Verizon, I called
up the cable company.  They promised delivery in 5 days.  The met this
promise by delivering in four.  I have been extremely pleased with this
service ever since.  I have had one outage, which was the result of a
lightning strike on one of their CO's.  It was rectified in two hours.

Obviously, your situation differs from mine.  First, you already have
broadband.  Second, your broadband is the source of your frustration.  In
my case, the fact that I had to wait forever for things to download was
the source of my frustration.  I would certainly keep the pressure on the
cable company to keep the connection up.  Keep a log of when it goes down.
Call it in *each and every* time it goes down.  Each time you call it in,
bore the operator with a list of other outages.  Make sure your account
gets the "handle with kid gloves" flag set.  Read your user agreement and
see if there is any guarantee (probably not) about outages.  Look for
ways, in other words, to get them to do their job.

Does your cable TV go out every time it rains, too?

On Mon, 23 Jul 2001, Jay Finch wrote:

> Hey everyone,
>
> I know this question has been asked a million and one times, but being that
> the technology has changed so much in the past few months and I'm only now
> becoming concerned with it, I wanted some opinions.
>
> I've been a Charter Comm. Cable Modem subscriber for about 3 years now, and
> have had pretty good service.  It's been fairly peppy, but I hate how it
> goes down when it rains (without fail) and other weird routing and downtime
> issues.  I just got a notice from BellSouth that I'm (finally!) eligible
> for DSL service.
>
> What I want to know is this: How reliable is DSL vs. Cable?  What about the
> speeds?  (I generally get 1.5MB download and 128k upload on Cable fairly
> consistently, depending on I-net traffic.)
>
> Additionally, I'm using a Linux box as my firewall/gateway, and I have a
> Static IP with Charter right now.  I know that Mindspring & Bellsouth both
> use PPPoE with DHCP as a standard, but Mindspring offers a Static IP for
> $15 extra a month.
>
> I want a static IP.  From y'alls experience: Do Mindspring and Bellsouth
> refresh their IPs often enough to warrant asking for a static one?  (I have
> several DNS mappings to my home machine right now.)
>
> And finally, I know that neither "support" Linux -- I know my stuff fairly
> well in getting a box configured, but how much of a bear is it to configure
> for DSL vs. Cable?  (And is there a "better" DSL ISP for Linux? I'm trying
> to keep my costs around $50-$60/month, which is what I'm paying for my
> Cable Modem right now.)
>
> Thanks in advance for y'alls help.  :~)
>
> Cheers!
> Jay
>
>
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-- 
glasher at nycap.rr.com
After 163 days, Verizon still couln't deliver Telocity DSL.

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